I don't deny that Japan was pretty brutal during the war, but that doesn't mean there weren't innocent people who had nothing to do with such atrocities that were hurt and killed. I always feel bad for the people on every side who are just living their lives trying to survive who get hurt by stupid foolish wars which shouldn't exist in the first place.Man, war is stupid on every single level.

Is this love big enough to watch over me?
Big enough to let go of me
Without hurting me,
Like the day I learned to swim?-Kate Bush The Fog

That's why people should fight such horrible regimes being put into place in the first place. Bad things can happen. Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden. Had Hitler not garnered such widespread support, Dresden would never have been seen as more than a spot on a map.

Just saying that that's your interpretation of what Christianity says about war. Here's the Catholic Church's, based on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas:

(1) Just cause — The war must confront an unquestioned danger. "The damage inflicted by the aggressor or the nation or community of nations must b lasting, grave and certain, assets the Catechism (#2309).

(2) Proper authority — The legitimate authority must declare the war and must be acting on behalf of the people.

(3) Right Intention — The reasons for declaring the war must actually be the objectives, not a masking of ulterior motives.

(4) Last resort — All reasonable peaceful alternatives must have been exhausted or have been deemed impractical or ineffective. The contentious parties must strive to resolve their differences peacefully before engaging in war, e.g. through negotiation, mediation, or even embargoes. Here too we see the importance of an international medial body, such as the United Nations.

(5) Proportionality —The good that is achieved by waging war must not be outweighed by the harm. What good is it to wage war if it leaves the country in total devastation with no one really being the winner? Modern means of warfare give great weight to this criterion.

(6) Probability of success — The achievement of the war's purpose must have a reasonable chance of success.

(1) Discrimination — Armed forces ought to fight armed forces, and should strive not to harm non-combatants purposefully. Moreover, armed forces should not wantonly destroy the enemy's countryside, cities, or economy simply for the sake of punishment, retaliation or vengeance.

(2) Due proportion — Combatants must use only those means necessary to achieve their objectives. For example, no one needs to use nuclear missiles to settle a territorial fishing problem. Due proportion also involves mercy — towards civilians in general, towards combatants when the resistance stops (as in the case of surrender and prisoners of war), and towards all parties when the war is finished.

Yeah, that's true, too. But Germany had already surrendered, and the Japanese were not surrendering, fighting on even at the expense of its own people (cutting its own nose off to spite its face, I guess). I think, by that point, America just wanted it over already. But, you're right...the dropping of the bomb is not only seen as the end of WWII, but the beginning of the Cold War, as well.

Even before the bomb was dropped. His B29s couldn't hit the broad side of a city at their designed high altitude, so he changed strategy and went low level with napalm & incendiary bombs on Tokyo. No military targets.

Murder, war crimes?

.....................................

GENERAL CURTIS LE MAY. In air campaigns against Japan in 1944 and 1945, General Curtis LeMay of the U.S. Army Air Corps also defied the established wartime policy of the United States. That policy called for precision daylight bombing of military targets. Instead, LeMay retrofitted his planes with napalm cannisters (jellied gasoline), and dropped them at night over the northern suburbs of Tokyo, which were then the most densely populated areas in the world. Of course there were no men of fighting age present; there were only women, children, and the elderly packed in their wooden homes. On one evening, March 9, 1945, LeMay’s pilots were particuarly lucky: there was a brisk wind that carried the flaming napalm across wide distances. The heat that was generated was so great that the few people who could get out of their homes in time and jump into the nearest river or lake were boiled to death. General LeMay had successfully presided over the murder of 100,000 innocent people. He also had a quip to give to posterity: “There are no innocent civilians, so it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent bystanders."

When I participated on a war crimes panel at West Point some years ago, I brought up LeMay’s name as an arch war criminal. Despite my saying this in a room packed with cadets and high brass, no forcible action was taken against me. Perhaps the reason for the restraint was that the West Pointers were prepared for remarks such as mine. All eyes turned to one of the observers in the first row, an Army officer who was also a professor at West point. After standing up and establishing his credentials as a major student of aerial warfare, he sharply disputed my assertion that LeMay dropped bombs on non-military targets. He said that the women in the targeted area were active participants in furthering the Japanese war effort: they were darning socks and mending army uniforms.

That may all be true, and we doubtlessly did some ugly things. But whoever wrote the above has to remember that WWII wasn't a war we asked for or wanted to participate in. The Japanese should've realized (and ultimately, did) that, sometimes, you need to be careful what you ask for. Their own innocent people ended up paying the price, but so did ours.

Ohhh...all of this is hurting my head! Make it stop! It's funny how a topic about a commercial has turned into a war debate. But around here, that's business as usual.

BTW, if Japan didn't attack Pearl Harbor, we wouldn't have had to bomb them in the first place. Can you say "asking for it"?

There are some who speculate the war was close to ending before we did the bombing of both cities. One of the reasons we chose less populated cities as tokyo was essential to keep intact as disrupting the government of Japan was predicted to unleash chaos and warlord rule all over again.These again are analysts postulating their too little too late ideas and theories but there is data to support it.In the end, the a bomb was kind of a weird, "no really we mean it, the war's over"Like using a sledge hammer to kill an ant, I heard once (I don't really agree with that as Japan was pretty dangerous)

Ohhh...all of this is hurting my head! Make it stop! It's funny how a topic about a commercial has turned into a war debate. But around here, that's business as usual.

BTW, if Japan didn't attack Pearl Harbor, we wouldn't have had to bomb them in the first place. Can you say "asking for it"?

There are some who speculate the war was close to ending before we did the bombing of both cities. One of the reasons we chose less populated cities as tokyo was essential to keep intact as disrupting the government of Japan was predicted to unleash chaos and warlord rule all over again.These again are analysts postulating their too little too late ideas and theories but there is data to support it.In the end, the a bomb was kind of a weird, "no really we mean it, the war's over"Like using a sledge hammer to kill an ant, I heard once (I don't really agree with that as Japan was pretty dangerous)

Nagasaki was a secondary target as the original city was cloud covered. Pres. Truman was the one who OK'd dropping the bombs but also chopped Gen. McArthur off at the knees when he wanted to go into China and even use nukes during the Korean War.

As for this topic veering off, neither Nathan or the Mods(that never post here) have said anything.

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